Proverbs 4

Notes

Ver. 1-3. My dear young friends, attend to and receive these affectionate, wholesome, and profitable instructions which I give you: and while you live, earnestly practise the same. They are the very same which I myself, as a darling son, and intended successor on the throne, received from my pious and affectionate father David. 4-9. He, in the most careful and earnest manner, instructed me in my childhood, and begged me to fix his instructions and directions in my heart, and practise them in my life, as the means of attaining true and lasting felicity. He earnestly recommended to me the getting of Jesus Christ, and the true knowledge and fear of God in him, and cleaving thereto, as the grand and effectual means of preservation from sin and danger, and of obtaining happiness and honour both in time and eternity.^* 10-13. As you wish to live long and prosperously, receive, and observe in your practice, these my instructions. I do not direct you into paths of folly, fraud, or perverseness, but into a course of wisdom, integrity, and virtue; in which you may prosecute business without any entangling difficulties, and with ease, despatch, and certain success. Carefully fix these instructions in your mind and heart, and persevere in the practice of them, as on this your happiness in time and eternity depends. 14-19. With the utmost care and abhorrence avoid the company and course of wicked men, and every temptation thereto; and with the greatest speed and earnestness flee from it if you have been entangled; for such is the malignity of their dispositions, that they can take no rest till they execute their villanous intentions, and are perpetually disturbing themselves in order to ruin others. They neither have, nor desire, any other provision to live on than what they get by unjust and violent courses. And while good men daily grow in knowledge, grace, and holiness of conversation, till they arrive at perfection, wicked men, amidst gross ignorance, error, confusion, crimes, and wretchedness, rush on heedlessly till they are plunged into everlasting misery. 20-27. And in order to retain in heart, and practise in life, these my excellent instructions, which are a source of lasting and complete happiness to all who improve them aright, watch over your heart, and keep your mind, conscience, will, affections, thoughts, and desires, with uncommon earnestness, as from these do originally issue the eternal happiness or misery of mankind. Resolutely shun all impure or wicked discourse; and never let any corrupt, false, filthy, idle, passionate, or scornful communication proceed from your lips. Let your mind and thoughts be fixed only upon the right paths of holiness and virtue, that you may walk in them without ever turning from them; and never let your eyes, by fixing on improper objects, seduce you into sin or danger. Before you fix upon any action, carefully examine whether it be agreeable to God's law, and answerable to the end for which you intend it; and let every step you take in life be rightly ordered, according to the rule of his Word. And, by shunning extremes on every hand, labour to avoid everything offensive or injurious either to God or men.

^* Whether David's words end here, or reach farther, perhaps to the end of chap. ix., we do not certainly know.

Ver. 18. Even the private path of the just (the believer justified by faith, Ro. iii.) is as the shining light. It shineth more and more before God, in faith and love; more and more before men, in diligence and zeal; more and more before the church, in knowledge and edification; more and more before God, in humility and holiness. C.

Ver. 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence. Keep it with the diligence of a guardian, that would fence it against intrusion or assault; with the diligence of a servant, that would attend to its necessities and requirements; with the diligence of a steward, keeping all accounts of expenditure and gain; and with the diligence of a physician, attending to its symptoms, and prescribing for its diseases; and with the diligence of a friend, taking equal pleasure in bearing with its infirmities, sympathizing with its sorrows, relieving its necessities, and participating in its joys. C.

Reflections.—It is the greatest honour, as well as duty, of parents carefully to instruct their children: and it may be infinitely useful after both instructors and instructed are laid in the dust. Unspeakably excellent is Jesus Christ, his grace, and holy religion. Multitudes of powerful reasons engage us to remember and cleave to them: and to love, delight in, or exalt them. Yet how apt are our corrupt hearts to ensnare us into fellowship with wicked persons or practices, or even to render us intent on, and delighted in, the most cruel and barbarous conduct! But wide is the difference in time, and especially in eternity, between the way of holiness and that of iniquity. While the saints gradually grow up in grace here, and live in endless felicity hereafter, the wicked blindly rush forward into everlasting misery. Great circumspection, care, diligence, and watchfulness are therefore necessary in denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and in living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil world.